 Speaking of India and Germany in the same breath is almost akin to speaking of first love. Embedded in memory, somewhere. Only to rekindle from time to time. A rare relationship amongst nations indeed. Difficult to find just as the sight and smell of Indian roses in Berlin tucked away in a little corner of Berlin. Forgotten by history, time stops a while in this extraordinary garden built long ago with row upon row of Indian roses and an Indian fountain. Its builders lie buried somewhere under the march of time, but the garden remains. A testimony perhaps to the initial historical interface between the two countries but grew multiland and multidimensional over time. For the western hemisphere, the Portuguese may have discovered the land that was India and the British may have ruled over it. But it was the Germans who fell in love with what laid beneath this physicality of possession with the centuries of her mysteries. Mysteries that they tried to unravel layer after layer so as to be able to understand the idea that is India. I would even say that was a craze about this discovery and the main German philosophers. Hegel called it the dawn of thought in India. There is perhaps no other example in history of such an imaginative reconstruction of one nation by another. Of its history and its philosophy, architecture and people, art, architecture and music conducted with an intensity bordering on reverence. The strong input was the scholarly interest in India in the 19th century. There's no problem of colonialism, there's no this deep commercial interest but there's really an interest in Indian culture, very deep interest in Indian culture and I think this makes this relationship so special. A contemporary mania for India has been around in Germany far too long for it to be a passing vogue or an exotic fancy. Its intensity may vary from time to time and its hues may be ever changing but at its core an intense emotional bond remains. Perhaps because both Indians and Germans have this persistent and vibrant curiosity about each other as also about the philosophy of life, thinkers and philosophers from both countries have always tried to find answers to questions that touch the foundations of human life and dignity. However, this curiosity has never stopped at just encounter but has always gone beyond to evolve into exchange and at times even deeper into complementarity. Nonetheless, undoubtedly it is the spontaneous human interface and the intense emotions which inspire it which has been and is still date the cornerstone of this relationship. Through the centuries who have built bridges and given a face and form to this bond perhaps the pioneering Indologists in medieval Germany fully understood this and laid the foundations accordingly. Paradoxically, an Indologist whom the Indians revered the most and who for them epitomizes the very essence of Indo-German relations is known but a little amongst Germans. In fact, only as one more Indologist of his generation who worked on India but spent his entire life at Oxford in England and is considered therefore more Anglo than German. Indians, on the other hand, view him as the most sincere and genuine emissary of their glorious heritage to the entire world especially at a time when India was low on self-esteem shackled as she was by colonialism. A free spirit with a free mind, Max Mueller wrote, If I was asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of his choices gifts and is most fully pondered on the greatest problems of life and has found solutions, I point to India. Max Mueller, perhaps till date, is the most well-known, loved and respected German in India having devoted his entire life in trying to understand India and helped the world understand her. Ironically, he never actually set foot upon the land that he revered so deeply. Max Mueller, of course, who was invited several times and was not principally unwilling but was not at the same time not really willing to go to India because he admired the Indian tradition and didn't want so much to see India in this colonialized condition. A lot of water has flown since and not only has India changed, so has Germany. Fortunately, for both, the fascination remains. One thing was really very, very impressive. When you come from Europe to India, you see in the streets people who look like people from maybe 500 years ago and then you see people who look like from the 50s or 40s, 30s, 20s till now and you have a completely strange relation to time when you move through India. This romance of the other, a fascination for what is different which inspired interaction between Indians and Germans from all walks of life for centuries has moved along with time towards a deeper understanding of each other's contemporary realities. It didn't take more this long time to learn that India is a very powerful country. Of course, but first of all, it's a big society. It's a democratic society. And I'm not sure whether we in Europe, we in Germany could stand the tensions India stands today daily because to have people from the Stone Age up to the satellites generation with so many different languages, cultures rich and poor, this normally blasts a nation. And this democracy is strong enough to continue and to improve their daily performances. Though we are proud to have this cultural and colourful nation as our partner. Partnerships between cities in a narrowly divided world are rare and while many in Bremen in Germany and Pune in India may not be aware of it, they do share an exceptional one. The purpose of our forum, City Solidarity, was to overcome the traditional prejudices. Pune-Bremen relationship is really special because two cities far off Pune, here in India and Bremen in Germany they have come together not with any other initiative from the government side but from the NGOs. People, people have come together and now after 25 years this cooperation touches upon almost all many important, many sided factors of the city life. Be it nations or people, collaborative endeavours are successful when people come together to work together. But often apparent contrast between what is familiar and what seems alien keeps them apart. Respect for the other and a perspective which looks beyond the surface is perhaps all that is essential to a meaningful cooperation. We are talking very often about the problems which we are facing at the community level but we have never talked about the potential which is there and I think for me that is the most important part that we try now to explore the potential rather than getting stuck with a lot of problems. These women from village Supe in India may not understand the intricacies of relations between nations and may not even unduly care involved as they are in improving their and their children's today for a better future. Having been helped to help themselves by a joint program between the governments of India and Germany they are an ideal example of an alternative path of development which is also sustainable. I think empowerment is justice also other way around justice is empowerment. So charity is needed but we have to be very clear when and where it is needed and I think empowerment is the key for development. In a world ever changing development may have many definitions and cooperation among nations myriad examples but one of the first and perhaps still the finest between India and Germany is undoubtedly the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. Globally it is recognized as one of the most successful bilateral international partnerships in technical education and this is being used as a model for many other countries and also by Germany in their partnership with other countries for example the South American countries and in fact I have looked at the critical success factors why is it that this has been a success the people that they sent in the beginning all of them had a zeal, a commitment, a dedication and enthusiasm and the planning that went before that senior people sitting together and then deciding what it is that we need to do for India then their understanding of the cultural context in which that institute was going to be placed here close cooperation between the Indian counterparts and the German counterparts and continuous assistance and placing here about 100 professors and staff on campus and each one of them they built up individual labs in the German system and they also built up Indian counterparts so these are all success factors. Roots of this vibrant academic exchange may be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries as early as 1919 Bonn had a chair of Indian studies and in 1929 in Munich an institute of Indian studies was active Traditional Indology subjects however soon gave way to include pursuit of knowledge in all spheres, especially the sciences While at present science and technology have crossed national and cultural borders as an essential part of globalization but in the 1920s when S&Bos from India and Einstein from Germany collaborated they defied all contemporary logic Without the internet institutional structures facilitating academic exchange programs such as DAG they successfully formulated the Bose-Einstein condensation model among other things Indian scientists in Germany German scientists in India collaborating, teaching at universities has been a reality ever since This intermingling the world just cannot escape I think there are strengths in both the culture there are strengths in both the countries people are intrinsically very bright they have new ideas we might not have had the hardware tools to implement those ideas so that way they feel extremely happy to interact with us and we also have some excellent facilities As a logical progression this interaction which begins in science labs culminates in technological cooperation For German excellence in technology recognized worldwide has always been held in high esteem by Indians However, any collaborative endeavors made in today's world must also share a value system beliefs and a sense of right and wrong to ensure that science does not destruct but is used solely for the benefit of mankind I always take this as an example of a good collaboration because it's of mutual trust and it works without hurdles in your way if you want to achieve a scientific goal Indian scientists and the German scientists in a certain way they are complementary It gets complementary essentially because of the economic differences between the two countries and the cost of scientific and technical manpower and in the case of renewable energy the sheer difference in resource endowments I remember several years ago doing a project with DLR in Stuttgart which was essentially to evaluate a system using solar energy for cooling purposes and they couldn't do it for three months simply because you required three days of continuous sunshine and in three months they didn't get those three days of continuous sunshine An accidental collaboration an exchange which took place in history with no one to witness it but successful to an extent which perhaps would not have been possible if planned Homeopathy So widespread is its practice and so high its credibility as a healing system in India that it is difficult to persuade an average Indian of its German origins Dr. Hanuman, father of homeopathy would perhaps have been both surprised and happy if he could possibly have witnessed respect and admiration that is his in a land so far away from home His bust in a neighborhood park in New Delhi would perhaps have persuaded him fully Not all exchange between India and Germany is academic and serious in nature There is an immense lot which is contemporary colorful, noisy and fun Fusion is the buzzword here When Hegel wrote a couple of hundred years ago in Germany India is a land of all imaginative inspiration This is what he probably had in mind There is no form of human creativity where Indians and Germans have not collaborated and interacted to discover new forms of idiom and expression or just to perform for each other to discover that art knows no geographical boundaries and that language ultimately is no barrier When you play as a DJ you make an impulse to the people and you get a feedback and you can create an emotion with the people together and the important thing is that the people have the same emotion as you when you're playing as a DJ and that's the whole thing that makes the crowd moving It's part of the job it's part of the game to work in several languages and it's a chance to keep the mind open to stay open theater has a special language to unit these seem to be differences but they aren't It was different One day everybody was a little bit reserved but I think in Kolkata the people were very excited and they liked it and also in daily I think and anyway it was really a wonderful experience Shakuntalan in German and Brecht in Punjabi is when two nations meet when two people meet across centuries spontaneously without clutter to sustain a bond of the heart no matter where, no matter how whenever two individuals meet who belong to two different parts of this world if only to make conversation then each time two worlds come face to face two images of the world come together and then however fleetingly but surely the world moves closer and for a moment in time the worlds meet to become one there are but a few symbols that are truly international everywhere in the world they inspire identical emotions and over time have become icons this is one of them this contemporary legend is being crafted with just as much competence skill and spirit in India as it has been for generations in Germany in fact this Mercedes-Benz plant in Pune, India has been awarded best plant three years in a row when we produce cars for the local market we also exported cars all over the world and we are also very proud that we are the only foreign plant from Mercedes-Benz who has so far exported cars and as you can see here we not only exported cars to Southeast Asia we also exported cars back to Germany while this by itself holds immense value the process behind it is no less important people from two different countries cultures having different work styles often believed to be diametrically opposite by working successfully together have proved that quality is not something that can be defined by geography alone given the fact that we had a long association with Germany and particularly a long association with Mercedes they came to the conclusion that here is a company which can supply the engines of the standard that we want several teams came and we had a lot of interaction it's a matter of great delight for us that they ultimately decided that yes we should make the engine for them and I think it's a matter of great pride for us that we are making this engine and we have met with excellent success for an industry which was but in its infancy at the time of independence Indian industry has against all odds reached a pinnacle of success where today it competes with the best in the world there are two realities or at least two realities in India this is what we see the poverty on the circumstances and the slums and and and but it's a real industrial country with rocket industry, with air and space industry sometimes even more successful than the European one the last couple of years been very positive for the image of India in Germany it has been projected through media to also a lot of Indians coming over who have done a very good job especially in the new technology so that the idea of India being a developing country has changed its meaning when Verna von Siemens personally supervised laying of the first telegraph line between London and Calcutta in 1867 the foundations of Indo-German cooperation in industry were also laid except that Krupp was there even earlier since 1860 the first German bank set up shop in India in 1896 a relationship which has proved to be mutually beneficial and has been carefully nurtured over time Germany is the number one European trading partner for India and the second largest foreign trade partner after the US and even ahead of UK currently the number of Indo-German joint ventures total to 4786 big number Germany is known to be a trade fair country and the presence of Indian companies at German trade fairs has gradually developed into the second largest participation from Asia-Pacific it is not as if there are no contentious issues amidst all this cooperation there are quite a few but efforts are being made to find workable solutions at all levels however cultural differences which would be perceived by many as the most obvious are summarily dismissed I feel the thinking between an Indian and a German is not so different it is much easier for me it is very easy to understand the Indian way of thinking for me it is much more difficult to negotiate with Japanese or with a Korean person than with an Indian the mentality of the people is similar the way of negotiating is very similar and in principle what I think is very important Indians may be hard in negotiating a business but finally if the agreement is settled then they are sticking to you can absolutely rely on what you have agreed upon we are traditionally good trade partners and we are good partners in other economic terms and given the fact that I think the future of Germany also in Europe only begins now with the enlargement of the European Union Germany is seen from the Indian point of view one of the countries where one should have relations with and apparently both countries have not many difficulties Germans are a bit tough but Indians can also be and I have always seen that in negotiations or so or in seminars, in lectures, in university circles also Germans and Indians have no difficulties with each other there is never the danger that they offend each other both know how to behave up to a certain stage where one should not go beyond and so far I find to do business with each other is for them much easier with collaborations more than half a century old in existence functioning well with the second generation at the helm building upon the foundations of mutual trust it is perhaps safe to assume globalization or no globalization Indo-German relationship can flower by itself under globalization possibly better than without it but it is not based on globalization at all it is based on the mutual respect for each other's cultures and countries and strengths and a mutual attraction for each other's markets a time comes in the lives of nations when barriers are broken and boundaries stretched when a certain level of comfort seeps into the relationship and encourages plurality even now after residing for 28, 29 years in Germany I think even I dream and I think in German without losing my identity as a born Indian so at the same time I say I am a product of two different cultures you take a lot from them and you give also a part of your culture to them it just depends on you also if I give myself as one of them sooner or later I am a part of this society since then I am caring as mayor in the city and I think this is also a way for me to promote Indian culture because everyone knows me as a born Indian for many of the people who have been living here for 30 or 40 years they have given a lot of effort and they have invested a lot of their energy and fantasy to create more colourful Germany in the sense of a pluralistic society Beyond economics, beyond politics beyond commerce, science and technology beyond reasons, analysis, debate and beyond rationale beyond all of these is where the core of this relationship lies which ultimately is an experience a feeling for we are so close, we are the same tribe I mean you know about the story that many of you are Aryans many of us Germans are Aryans so we are so close actually I see so many similarities in the diversity that I would see a lot of other civilisations in this world who are much far away from our German society than Indian society I very clearly see you know the culture where you come from you can't just take this off like a dress you take off this is who you really are and where you are brought up but it's fairly easy to get into the mood into the feel of the other culture also and be with people together and understand what they really are up to and it's great fun I think to combine this and see you know what comes out when you combine this and what really is the mix of this how much can I learn from what is offered to me here and how much can I also give from what I bring in this so this is very interesting and I think life is really thrilling because of this only they told me if you come here in the beginning you will cry and I did I have to confess you will cry also when you go away again so I think this will also be my reaction fascinating time fascinating country incredible lot of work I must say it has it very pleasant part it has extremely touching part if I look back for example the earthquake in Gujarat I was there two days afterwards in Boj it was really one of the things I will not forget or to mention something else I was in Varanasi just a week ago and Friday evening when there was the biggest and holiest day again something I will never forget so this country offers I should say everything which can be offered on earth Namaste Namaste to India India and Germany Germany and India meet ever so often like old lads but each time wearing a different face singing a different song searching a different dream meeting again and yet again so as to try and understand to know to unravel this fascination for each other this affinity which exists this familiarity this distance which seems beyond reach and yet so near the seeming contrast with yarn deeper than an abyss only to discover an inexplicable familiarity and ultimately to intensify the same bond which one had set upon to unravel